


bring on the winter

by halfwheeze



Series: Winteriron Bingo 2019 (Round 1) [9]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Arranged Marriage, M/M, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, there's a lot going on here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 07:10:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18361142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwheeze/pseuds/halfwheeze
Summary: anthony and james have been arranged to marry since tony was barely a godling, and now all tony has to do is find him.in which tony stark holds the stars in a jar and bucky barnes walks to the left of the moon.





	bring on the winter

**Author's Note:**

> This is filling my square G2: Arranged Marriage!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Arranged marriages among gods must sound completely alien, but that would only be because one has never met a god, have they? Gods do not age but Anthony has known who he will marry since he was a child; gods do not age but Anthony is so old now. Gods do not age, but he must live this life through if he wants to finally meet his all, his anything, his everything. His mother says that he must walk left of the moon to find the one who loves him, but Anthony does not know what that means in the moors or mortals and the winds of mortality. He has never died before and he doesn't know if he should fear it or not. Death is his aunt, death is family, but he has never seen the side of her that means business. 

He's born mortal in 1970, and he forgets who he is until he's five years old. He's Tony Stark, here, and no one ever calls him Anthony, no one ever calls him godling, no one ever calls him Spring. He is more than Spring of course, invention and newness and all sorts of things, but he has been called Spring since he was just a little thing, and no one calls Tony Stark Spring. Tony Stark is raised by a father who barely calls him a child, let alone a godling, and a mother that does not understand enough to tell him to look between the stars that walk with the moon, and Anthony misses home. 

When he's eight and inventing is just something that is expected of a young Tony Stark now, he puts just a touch of the magic he can access in a jar so that it looks like the stars that used to tell him goodnight every night and good morning every single morning, and he carries just a bit of home in his pocket. Maria is not his true mother, but he loves her anyway, and he loves her in only the way that a child can, with reckless abandon. She is taken from him when Tony Stark is seventeen, and he begs his aunt to bring her back silently, because part of the process of meeting his betrothed is never being overt in what he is, even if it hurts. 

He meets James Rhodes at MIT in Boston and if he didn’t know better, he would think Rhodey is a godly thing. Rhodes does not have holy energy about him, does not scream of age and sleeplessness and all of the things that Anthony wears beneath his skin, all of the things that say  _ godly  _ and mean  _ tired.  _ Anthony walks between the waking and falls into the sleeping, falls into drug habits that humans are so fond of in this time, hides the pain of his homesickness in white powder and the way that he misses Rhodey when he goes off to fight another man’s war in the bottom of a bottle. He never thought that he’d miss Rhodey, Rhodey who is only a few thousand miles away instead of whole worlds, more than his mother. He walks on with the waking and forgets not to sleep. 

Humans are easy to bed, even if laying with another with his betrothed in the back of his mind feels some shade of wrong. He hasn’t met his betrothed yet, and Tony’s father had cheated on the mother he loved all his life, and Anthony’s father had done the same with Anthony’s mother as well, and as much as he does not want to be either of the men who shaped him, he doesn’t want to… he can’t do it alone anymore. He gets three doctorates and starts making enough weapons to keep his honeybear safe, tries his damndest to force magic through phone calls that never last long enough. 

Obadiah Stane does not leak in the way of a liar. He has more of the energy of a weaver, and Anthony had forgotten, after so long, that a way of weaving was to weave in with lies too. Anthony has been tortured beneath the hands of gods, has been thrown from buildings that stood miles high, has received all sorts of remarks from all sorts of gods meant to be family, but nothing hurts quite like a car battery half way through his chest. He drops godliness at the door when he builds himself out of iron, strips magic through it because this  _ can’t  _ be what being a normal human is like, because he  _ can’t survive like this.  _ Yinsen dies and Tony cries because everything is so achingly  _ human  _ and he wishes he could die as well. 

Tony fights his way out because it's all he knows how to do; survival is a god's game more than it has ever been a mortal's, and if he needs to stop being a man and go back to his godly roots, he is more than willing. He guts a company with ease, even when it nearly kills him because Obadiah is not done trying to rip out Tony's heart, but he is forced to move on with quickness, with an agony like no other. It feels like a moment before finding out that his own magic is killing his mortal form, what his magic made do with is no longer working, and Tony has to work with people who would watch him die in order to survive. 

He lives through it, but he does not come out any kinder. He doesn't know the last time an experience made him any kinder. 

Aliens come. They claim to be gods and Tony supposes he recognises them, in the odd way that gods from other pantheon's burn to look at, but he makes sure to openly express disdain in their direction. Tony Stark does not believe in gods, is an atheist in the public eye, and that is the image that he needs to maintain. 

Even when it feels like the closest he's gotten to seeing his brother in what seems like centuries, he has to keep to himself. Loki sees what's in him that isn't human, but Anthony keeps his persona; he blames the lack of Loki's control on the metal core in his chest, be damned that it's still woven with magic, and he's only getting older in this body. He feels so old when he looks at Loki and sees the magic that hangs around him like a cloak, because Loki is so young. Thor and Loki both are, but Anthony can't express that. He holds it in. 

When Steve asks for money to go on an excursion to find some man that Anthony has never met, he throws it at him, a shrug of the shoulders and an offering of his other services available. Steve doesn't want him around for the search, which burns, but Tony has other things to do. He understands why Steve doesn’t want him to help find the man that killed his mother, anyway. He copes with it, processes it, mourns her all over again, but he does fine in that way. Death is not unfamiliar, and he knows that she is merciful to those that deserve it. 

He's handed the company to Pepper Potts, given her everything he can because she burns in the same way that James Rhodes does, and she deserves every little thing he can give her. However, he cannot give her the happiness that she deserves in giving him his heart, and when they break up, it's amicable. Neither of them talk about it. 

When Steve brings Barnes home, Anthony feels his throat closing up. His mother always said that he would know his soulmate the moment he saw him, but Anthony has not walked to the left of the moon yet. He has not worked enough to cross paths with this man yet, and yet... here he is. Anthony looks at the Moonwalker with wide eyes; he had thought that he had never known his soulmate. He realises that despite the fact that they've never technically been introduced, he's watched him from across the universe with stars in his eyes, and these are things he cannot explain with humans present. 

"James," he says instead, a near whisper, and watches as the expression of the good Captain twists. He knows that the first name of his betrothed's human counterpart is James, that he has never gone by that name, but he must know. Where the eyes of the Moonwalker were dim before, he looks up with bright eyes as Anthony says his name, and the god of invention can feel himself about to cry. He hasn't cried in years. 

"Anthony," James breathes, quiet and reverent, and the rest of these Avengers are so confused, but Anthony has never felt more cemented in his life, even before this life, when he was by his mother's side and always so, so sure of himself. This is what he is meant to feel like, he's sure of it, and he knows why his mother chose James. The Moonwalker closes their distance and cups his face, the Captain and the Widow flinching at his shoulders in some readiness to pull him back (likely suspecting violence, which is foolish), but Anthony grabs onto his other's hips, keeping him close and attempting to pull him closer. 

"My love," Anthony says, dropping into their ancient language, one that even Thor tilts his head to hear. Even the Allspeak is confused by language that comes from the inside, and Anthony will not apologize for having this moment with his love, his other, his betrothed. He thinks that perhaps they were supposed to court before submitting to their arrangement but... Tony knows how short life can be, even when one is immortal. He knows how quickly things can turn. 

"Antoshka. I have dreamt to meet you for a very long time, starkeeper," James says, the first word recognisable to human ears, but the rest likely a slurry for their humans and Asgardians. Thumbs stroke the lines of Anthony’s cheek bones and a forehead leans against his own, but it still doesn’t feel like James is close enough. Anthony wants to climb inside of his skin, let their godly perspectives mix and mingle until he cannot tell where he ends and where James begins, wants to get closer and closer and closer. 

“What the fuck is going on?” Clint pipes up from behind James’s shoulder, raising a hand as if he’s an elementary schooler. Anthony looks at James and tries not to wince; he's never had a strong suit in explaining things, and he's chewing on the inside of his lip in the meantime. He's completely distracted from replying when Rhodey pipes up; Tony hates himself a little for how he had forgotten his best friend was even around for his betrothed's presence. 

"My guess? That's the guy that Tony has been gearing up to marry since forever, based on the fact that they're talking in that weird shit," Rhodes explains, and Anthony whips around. James Rhodes is not supposed to know anything; he doesn't glow like a god, even if he's the closest that Tony has even come to one on this Earth, and he's certainly not supposed to know about Anthony's betrothal, as ancient as it is. Steve looks at both Anthony and James with equal confusion, looking about a centimeter away from panic. 

"How do you know that?" James asks Rhodey, muscles rigid with how hard he's going on the defensive. Rhodey laughs at him outright. 

"Tones told me about you when he was sixteen, Moonwalker. He used to get so fucking hammered, someone had to go after him, and I ended up finding out a lot about him. Someone else may have thought that it was just drunk rambling bullshit, but. I know Tony. The drunker he is, the less he lies," Rhodey explains, shrugging a shoulder with a smirk. Anthony holds in his nose of complaint as James leaves from his space, walking to stand in front of Rhodes; there's a marked expression of surprise in the room as James bows his head. 

"Thank you for keeping him safe, James Rhodes. I have heard that my betrothed has quite a reputation for... his antics, as it were," James says, sharksteeth grin taking over his face as he looks over his shoulder at Anthony. Tony rolls his eyes and sticks out his tongue, though the rest of the Avengers are somewhere between confusion and indignation at this point. Except, markedly, Thor, who is smiling. 

"You are godlings! I knew you were strange, my friends! How long have you been betrothed? What is your land? From what do you come?" Thor asks excitedly, and Anthony finds himself rearing in offense. James holds up a hand, coming to his defense. 

"I myself have been a god for centuries, as this is not my first mortal form. Now that Anthony has taken his first mortal form, he is also among gods. We have been betrothed since Anthony was born, as it were. He comes from the stars and the Spring, and myself from moon and winter," James explains, which does not curb the confusion of the natural mortals in the room. 

"Wait. You're a god?" Steve says, looking between Anthony and James. They both give him a nod of recognition and confirmation. 

“Oh. I just that you had some weird, regency shit going on in your family. That’s pretty neat, though. What are you the god of?” Rhodey asks around James, looking at Tony. It’s not like he cares a whole bunch about what James is the god of anyway. Tony flashes him a grin and cross the room, standing in the space of both his best friend and his betrothed. 

“Invention. Spring. The star known as Polaris is the land of my birth, though all stars in proximity to it are my homeland. I’m the god of new things, so children and babies are often beneath my jurisdiction as well, though my cousin, Death’s daughter, is the true goddess of younglings,” Tony explains, ticking things off on his fingers to the stares of literally everyone in the room. Only Rhodey and James look at him fondly. 

“And you?” Rhodey asks James before anyone else can speak, though Steve and Clint both look a bit put out by interruption. James smiles. 

“War strategy. My mother is the moon, and she is where I come from, but my father is Winter, and that is also part of what I am. Nighttime darkness is also part of me, as well as domesticated animals. There are many smalls things that fall beneath me as well, gifts from cousins and such, but there are far too many to list,” James says, shrugging his good shoulder. The other one leads to a metal arm that looks badly as if it needs to be fixed, and come to think of it, Tony grabs onto it. 

“Would you like something of mine rather than something of those who have hurt you?” he asks his betrothed, slipping into their mother tongue naturally. James considers him only for a moment, not long enough for doubt to set in before nodding. 

“That would be preferable,” he admits in return, and that’s when Natasha sees fit to reenter the conversation. 

“What language are you speaking? I don’t recognise it,” she says, seemingly bitter to have admitted it at all. Thor puts a hand on her shoulder, nearly enough wait to it to sink the Widow to her knees. 

“Shield-sister, they speak the language of their people! Even the Allspeak shan’t translate it and likely for good reason; all gods must have their own languages. Other gods have their own sort of Allspeak, and even theirs cannot translate direct Aesir. This is for the best,” Thor explains, jubilant and yet still deadly serious, and Tony gives him a slow grin. 

“As thrilled as I am for everyone involved,” Sam Wilson announces from his corner of the room, looking exactly as thrilled as, perhaps, someone actively falling asleep inside of a meeting, “I want to go to bed.” 

“Let’s go to bed, then,” James says, but he’s looking at Tony like a predator, and there are groans lighting the air from all around. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!
> 
> Prompt me in the comments or @halfwheeze on tumblr!


End file.
